by Jyhene Kebsi
Over the past fifteen years, scholarship has burgeoned on hip hop, but most scholarship has been centered on rap music (Shinhae Jun 7). From its origin in toasting and sound systems in Jamaica, hip hop has been extensively globalized (Mitchell 136). Globalization and human mobility have influenced international hip hop, particularly rap music. This global diffusion has become an essential facet of hip hop studies. Indeed, the widespread circulation of hip hop’s cultural practices and sensibilities have led to the emergence of research about hip hop in Africa (Forman “Eric” 123, 125). As a Tunisian Muslim feminist, I would like to focus on Muslim women’s rap in my North African country. While many scholarly studies have appeared on Tunisian men’s rap, Tunisian feminist rappers have been marginalized. In order to fill this gap, it is important to familiarize different global readers and listeners with these women’s art. Therefore, I have decided to shed light on this important, but neglected research area by publishing translations of four songs by four Muslim feminist rappers. The artists whose songs I have translated below are: Sabrina, Medusa, Tuny Girl, and Queen Nesrine. The analysis of each song is available in an article I have published recently in The Journal of North African Studies. This article represents the first scholarly study of Tunisian women’s rap. It would be great to see more researchers – including those who do not speak the Tunisian dialect – engage with these feminist songs:
1. Medusa
Medusa is the artist nickname of Boutheina El Aouadi. Medusa started break-dancing at the age of 10. She later started writing poems that became her own songs. In Tunisia, it is not very common to find parents who encourage their daughters’ involvement in rap. This is due to both the foul language that is often used in rap songs and the male-dominated nature of this field. Medusa is lucky in this regard because her family supports her interest in this masculine music genre (Djilali). Medusa is also a mother to a little daughter. She refuses the widespread social expectation that women rappers stop rapping after having children (Sky News Arabic). Medusa chose an English title for her song Hold On. The song’s lyrics run as follows:
I am watching the floating misery
Illiteracy has spread and made us go from one extreme to the other
Where is the freedom for which activists struggled?
Our happiness is incomplete
Where is the independence?!
Are you aware
That the Tunisian people has become divided?
Scary lies and gossipsEverything is calculated
The Tunisian people consumes drugs since poison has been infiltrated
We [Tunisians] did not bring it
They want our brains to stop functioning
The people is paralyzed and unreliable
They want to make you deny your identity
They take money, disguised as ‘aid’
My brother in the North died from cold.
You want ignorance?! It has become widespread!!
The proof is that people are fighting
Their goal is no longer the same
As the Greek said,
“divide in order to rule better”
I know Tunisians are smart
I know that Tunisians are streetwise
These assholes should not rule us
Preserve your dignity
They played the game and formed the government
We can snatch their benches again
I am the free Tunisian who exposed their chest to bullets
I am the mother, the mother of the martyr who has not gotten his revenge
They are driving us crazy with lies
They are planting doubts
As he walks on the street, the Tunisian doubts his brother
Whether Muslims or not, we are always united
Stand up! Support your country! Gloaters are out there!!
They want us silenced
Striving for bread
They have increased the prices incredibly
As if we had jobs?!
So much stupidity
So much ignorance
And so much fear
This is what I feel
This is what I see
As the Greek said:
“Divide in order to rule better”
This is the new world order
My country has been devastated
Bribery and unemployment
You want to divide us, Impossible!!
The Tunisian people wants justice
My country has been devastated
Bribery and unemployment
You want to divide us, Impossible!!
The Tunisian people wants justice
In a terrible condition
Unemployment
Impossible
2. Sabrina
Many Tunisians think that Medusa is the first Tunisian female rapper. Yet Sabrina is the first one since she started rapping before Tunisia’s Revolution, particularly in 2007 (Tele Tanbir). Sabrina is known for her scathing criticism of Tunisian sexist male rappers (Sabrina YouTube Official Channel). This has made some rappers accuse her of being too “masculine” and advise her to try to be “softer.” However, Sabrina ignores fellow rappers’ misogynist comments and emphasizes her determination to continue her career in Tunisia’s male-dominated rap world (Tele Tanbir; Kebsi 9). The lyrics of Sabrina’s song Aradhli/ Meet Me run as follows:
Meet me in the turn, meet me
He who is stronger than you, God who is above you, is protecting me
My heart is always suffering like Diesel Fuel
A helpless country
Leave me alone
The police catches and harms you
Don’t believe the corrupt state
Unemployment and poverty will not make you happy
He is filthy and wants to harm you
He wants a red pen on a new day
I hear you as you talk
Yet I do only what I want
I lived like a stranger in a sick country
Open the gate of Carthage or even of Nefidha
I flush this corrupt state
Say hi to Freedom
You will be punished, if you open your mouth
The leadership of Hadhoud
Collect your filth with a spade
The smell is stinking and your scandals are widespread
The police is following me in alleys
They asked us. ‘Who explains???’
We never live in Ennasr
People regret Zine
You stand in front of the judge
His verdict is cruel
His verdict is cruel
When the night falls, lift it
I cannot understand this
What can I do?
I happen to be in a country half of whose souls are sick
Some people are denuding themselves and showing their skin
The rest are sniffing white powder
Youth are leaving on a boat
A bottle and half the youth are stumbling
There is no point in giving advice to the dead
How much you enjoy scandals!!
You can do nothing for me
And you can meet me!!!
You do things in the country of craziness
If you concentrate, you will be taken to the Razi hospital
3. Tuny Girl
Like Sabrina and Medusa, Tuny Girl confronts the male chauvinism of Tunisia’s rap scene. Tuny Girl’s passion for rap has made people mock her. She has also been advised to leave this “men’s field.” Yet despite people’s constant sexist bullying, Tuny Girl equates her art with Girl Power (Shems FM). Despite the challenges, Tuny Girl has participated in various collaborations, including some songs that stress her love for rap (Sudan Music; Kebsi 13). The lyrics of Tuny Girl’s song Khaterni Tofla/Coz I’m A Girl run as follows:
Life is pink
We always keep hope
Yet where is hope?
Life is pink
Hope?
Where is hope?
I write as I feel injustice
I am struggling not to shed tears
Life has four seasons
I am always in autumn Hey!
You see me smiling, but my heart is full of sadness
No one knows the suffering of being a Tunisian woman
Here, gossips are cruel and endless
I personally don’t care about gossips
I live my life and never care
If you do bad to me, I spit and never look back
You watch,
You fall,
You stand up,
Finally, you don’t have another option
I love you Tunisia, but
How much I hate Tunisians!!
Flat minds
Souls that have been bought with money
They want you to stay at home, waiting for a stupid husband
People stepped on me only because I am a woman
Coz I am a woman, many hurt me, said unjust things about me
Hey life! Our place is not here
The frequency with which they say “whore” has made this word normal for me
A country of fake appearances
I am not proud it is my country
So many people who did not know me called me “slut”
If you had known me, you would have never said that to me, not even as a joke
They saw that I go out, wear make-up and meet people. Hey!
Yet thank God, I never did anything wrong
When I need to be a woman, I am a woman
And when I need to act like men, I equal ten men
Even though I do hang out in cafes and have done so many crazy things
Talk until tomorrow
What you say does not annoy me
You will not teach me how to live
Just because I am a woman
I do not mean to disrespect you
Yet I know that my father raised me right
I do not do wrong things, even unintentionally
This is a sick people
Hey, they are obsessed with sex to the maximum
They see women only as sex objects
I did not make this up
I am talking about what I saw
Here, he sees in other girls what he does not see in his sister
4. Queen Nesrine
Queen Nesrine is another artist who has faced resistance to her entrance into Tunisia’s rap world due to her femaleness. Like her female counterparts in Tunisian rap, Queen Nesrine stresses her opposition to misogynist stereotypes regarding women rappers (Queen Nesrine “Fi Mkhakhna”). Despite the difficulties, Queen Nesrine has succeeded in collaborating with a number of Tunisian female and male rappers (Queen Nesrine “Queen Nesrine”). Queen Nesrine’s songs reflect an intersectional feminist consciousness that refuses Tunisia’s status quo (Kebsi 16). The lyrics of Queen Nesrine’s song Fi Mkhakhna Differenti/Our Mentalities Are Different run as follows:
Thank God, He is with us and will not let us down
Nothing works
Sometimes, everything stops
What we wanted did not happen
Even if we lose our lives, we don’t care as wehave gained our parents’ satisfaction.
Your brain is regressing, bring the spade and start digging
Keep hating me
Go f**k yourself
Let them talk. Stop deciding and discussing
I am extremely dignified
Tunisia is regretting
You are a live, but not living
It is normal that they do not understand you
Instead of brains, they have put brutes
You have two faces: one is shown, the other is hidden
We don’t care about anyone
Coz we fear no one, except God
Fuck the police and the law
Fuck a country whose president is a clown
Fuck the people who have two faces: Every time, you see a new colour
We are at a world’s distance from you: You see us, but we are so far from you
Our brains have flied: They are different; We are really above you
We are dead inside
Skin just covers us
We buy the smile every day with a 10-dinar note from the drug dealer
If you want a job, you can sell drugs
A shitty situation
You cry, but it is very hard to shed tears
The police concentrate on us
I am going to live in Pisa
Here, I “want a solution. Yet, but I never found a way. I want good bye, I want freedom and money. Fuck situation”[1]
I cannot live in this country at all
Green Tunisia – I am sorry – has turned out filthy
The country is fragile. If Obama gets fed up, he will bombard it
Good riddance. People breathe. Yet they are dead
Nothing can be fixed
It is the end; Tunisia is fucked up
The word “Freedom” is just rhetoric in order to camouflage coercion
If it were a country of freedom, they would not put you in jail for smoking weeds
I would not be surprised, if Chams Eddine Bacha became president
We have discovered Tunisia
Only unreliable people have ruled it
They indulged in issuing fatwas,
Saying “this is not permissible, and that is confusing”
You send Tunisians to become jihadists in Syria, for money
But it’s a pity that you will rent Jerusalem
Are we infidels whom you want to convert to Islam???
The Quran book is in every Tunisian home
We pray and say “Amen”
Sick minds and many unacceptable things
They want to confine people in cages; they want to lock them up
They want to silence you and make you dogmatic
You struggle to survive, but you are incapacitated
You are angry and infuriated since your childhood
A sad life mother fucker!!
Tunisia is about to end, baby.
References:
Djilali, Emma. “Les femmes dans le hip-hop: place aux reines invisibles de la Tunisie.”
Middle East Eye. 2019. https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/reportages/les- femmes-dans-le-hip-hop-place-aux-reines-invisibles-de-la-tunisie.
Forman, Murray. “Eric Charry.” Journal of World Popular Music 1.1 (2014): 123-128.
Kebsi, Jyhene. “The Tunisian Rap Scene: An Intersectional Analysis of Women Rappers.”
The Journal of North African Studies (2024): https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/13629387.2024.2338069?needAccess=true
Mitchell, Tony. “Blackfellas Rapping, Breaking and Writing: A Short History of Aboriginal
Hip Hop.” Aboriginal History 30 (2006): 124-137.
Queen Nesrine. “Fi Mkhakhna Differenti.” 2013.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= G-UeEvZNEwE.
Queen Nesrine. “Queen Nesrine ft Linko – WTF!!!” 2013.
https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Uoxjdms_dJE.
Sabrina YouTube Official Channel. “Ridicule from Sabrina to Balti: Clash and a Candy.”
2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFQ3s5iRaQo.
Shems FM. “Urban Mag Session Free Style: Tuny Girl.” 2012.
https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=lqy2ZjKsqeY.
Shinhae Jun, Grace. “Moving Hip Hop: Corporeal Performance and the Struggle over Black
Masculinity.” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, 2014.
Sky News Arabic. “Their Success: Tunisia: Men in Rap.” 2023.
https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=wDpOuRgU37c
Sudan Music. “Lady-f Ft Tuny Girl.” 2018.
Tele Tanbir. “Sabrina: Rap Clash Kaffon et Walid Nahdi.” 2018.
[1] While the song is in Arabic, Queen Nesrine sang what is between quotes in English, and these are her words.
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